Jazz as discourse : a contextualised account of contemporary jazz in post-apartheid Durban and Johannesburg.

dc.contributor.author

Ramanna, Nishlyn.

dc.date.accessioned

2010-09-08T10:18:36Z

dc.date.available

2010-09-08T10:18:36Z

dc.date.issued

2005

dc.identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1013

dc.description

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

en_US

dc.description.abstract

This study offers an ethnographically contextualised close reading of the music played by three 'jazz' groups in eight concerts held in Durban and Johannesburg between June 1994 and December 2003. These performances were videotaped and then analysed with reference to 1) the compositional and improvisational techniques employed in the creation of the performances; 2) the stage behaviour of the musicians; 3) audience behaviour, and 4) the physical contexts in which the performances occurred. The performances constitute the primary texts on which this study is based. Secondary texts, in the form of discourse produced because of the concerts, are also examined. These take the form of open-ended interviews with thirteen participant musicians and twelve audience members. The primary and secondary texts are then compared with each other and situated within their broader musical and social contexts. This exploration of the ways in which social processes inhere in musical processes draws on a notion of expressive discourse as 1) a multifaceted practice in which textuality, subjectivity, place, history, and power function as interdependent parts of a complex social ecology and 2) a dialogically-constituted system of utterances. The study then argues that musical details articulate social meanings - and thus function as utterances - because of their dual existence within 1) systems of intra- and intertextual relationships and 2) processes of dialectical interaction between texts and socio-historical contexts.

dc.format

CD not available.

dc.language.iso

en

en_US

dc.subject

Jazz----KwaZulu-Natal--Durban--History and criticism.

en_US

dc.subject

Jazz--Gauteng--Johannesburg--History and criticism.

en_US

dc.subject

Discourse analysis.

en_US

dc.subject

Music--Political aspects--South Africa.

en_US

dc.subject

Theses--Music.

en_US

dc.title

Jazz as discourse : a contextualised account of contemporary jazz in post-apartheid Durban and Johannesburg.